Welcome to the Hunger Games read-along! Beginning July 1st, 2010, we will be reading and chatting about one chapter a day of both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins in anticipation of the release of Mockingjay on August 24th.

In the unlikely event that this is your first read of these amazing books, welcome! And more importantly, beware of spoilers! There will be spoilers.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

In which Katniss freaks out, blushes madly, and all around adds to the Capitol's love for Peeta and Katniss's love. (You guys, don't try to combine their names Brangelina style. Just don't. It's not pretty.) Of course, Katniss knows better. Katniss runs away into an elevator as soon as they're done, and then when Peeta comes out, she shoves him and makes him cut his hands. Girl is pissed. She yells at Peeta, Haymitch, and basically everyone that she looks like a fool. They calm her down and show her that it's a definite advantage. She doesn't look weak, she looks desireable. Peeta snarks about Gale.

They go eat some cream and rose-petal soup (which sounds amazingly decadent), but Peeta keeps bleeding. Portia bandages him (why do you think the female stylist works with Peeta, and the male with Katniss? Not important, just wondering...). This is their last day before the arena. They watch the interviews replayed on TV, and Peeta is "utterly winning" in Katniss's eyes. She says her final goodbyes to Effie and Haymitch (and Effie manages to insult District 12 yet again), and Haymitch gives some decent advice: stay away from the blood bath at the Cornucopia, and find a source of water first thing.

Katniss can't sleep from thinking about the arena, so she goes up to the roof. (Do the other districts not have access to the roof? Hmm, weird.) Peeta's up there, and they watch the Capitol parade. Peeta tells Katniss he only wants to die as himself, and she (in a way very telling of her inability to be anything less than totally herself) wonders how he could not do that. Peeta wants to stick it to the Capitol, if only by not being a total pawn. He's growing on me, everyone. If only he looked like Gale.

Katniss goes away angry, again. She remembers Titus from the games a few years back who went "completely savage" and almost ate his victims. He was killed by an avalanche which was speculated to have been created by the Gamemakers to take him out. She dozes, and Cinna wakes her to take her to the arena. They go to the roof, a silent hovercraft appears from nowhere, and Katniss is paralyzed as she grabs the ladder. A woman injects a tracker into her arm.

The hovercraft ride is about a half hour (how fast are those?), and Katniss and Cinna are deposited through a tube into the launch room, which will become a historical site after the games for Capitol tourists to come and visit and re-enact the games. Okay, I'm not that bad of a Capitol type. Katniss's clothes arrive (I imagine them to be very Prada with their innovative fibers and excellent fit), which she deems fine. The boots sound awesome. Cinna pins on her mockingjay, which almost didn't make it past the review board, because of its stabiness.

Katniss gets nervous and for once can't eat. She and Cinna hold hands while she waits, and he reassures her because he is the best person ever. Katniss stands tall as she elevates up and out into the arena which has "the hopeful smell of pine trees."

1 comment:

Right, so K shoves P into a vase that cuts up his hand, and then, HOLD THE PHONE! Effie cares about Peeta's bleeding hand? "'What's going on?' says Effie, a note of hysteria in her voice. 'Did you fall?'" Why the hysteria, Effie? Haven't you prepared countless tributes before him for the arena slaughter? What's it to her if he bleeds a little now? I need to know why she is OK with participating in this madness year after year. These Capitol people are inhumane.

I thought I believed in Peeta's newly professed love for K, until p135 when he says "'It was my idea,' says Peeta, wincing as he pulls spikes of pottery from his palms. 'Haymitch just helped me with it.'" Does that mean Haymitch helped him find the words to finally profess his love for K, or Haymitch helped him come up with a strategy in which Peeta pretends to be in love with K?

K sees some advantage to this romantic star-crossed-lovers strategy. I think she's still undecided regarding how much to trust Peeta. At least she apologizes for his hand injury. He dismisses it with a shrug, "'Although it's technically illegal.'" Flirting tip: tease your subject by accusing them of illegal damages towards you. Worked for Gale, and Peeta's trying it here. To judge by the rooftop chat, it didn't work. Let's examine the exchange:

"no offense, but who cares, Peeta?" I say.

"I do. I mean what else am I allowed to care about at this point?" he asks angrily. He's locked those blue eyes on mine now, demanding an answer.

And then K takes a step back, because she knows that he wants to care about HER and she shot him down. Er, well, shoved him down. Can't wait to see how this thing plays out in the arena.

Also wondering if the other tributes have access to the roof, and if not, where are their Hovercraft pick-up points? There's so much tension as K and P prepare for the Game's start tomorrow. At least it sounds like Haymitch is trying to get them sponsors. Wondering if he'll stay sober long enough to make anything happen?